Hot Spring
by transformertard
Summary: ( I wouldnt read this it kind of sucks *cries* ) Katara is bothered by the heat of a warm summer day so she goes to a nearby mineral pool to cool down. She doesn't expect someone else to be there already. ( this is pretty silly lol. Enjoy.) Contains Zutara. 3
1. Part 1

_this is just an idea that I had in my head. There will be a second part and maybe a third, Idk. Enjoy lol. Can't believe I was actually inspired to write something. Probably because this ship has killed me. RIP me. This fic contains Zutara so if you don't like that pairing, then go away lol._ (◡‿◡✿)

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Katara came out into the clearing with her clothes in her hands. Wearing just her white bandaged bra and underwear. She was heading down to the nearest natural mineral pool because today was particularly hot. Especially since it was morning, the sun burned down onto her dark skin. Katara woke up so warm she could barely stand it anymore. She was surprised the others were still sleeping through this heat like it was no problem.

Katara guessed she was just more sensitive to heat since she was a water bender and since she came from the arctic. Her brother Sokka could sleep through anything so she didnt bother worrying about him. She felt she couldn't escape the dry heat unless she were to find some water to cool down in. The dry warm air made her feel even worse, and she hated that there was not even the slightest bit of wind.

The waterbender wiped the beads of sweat off her warm forehead and sighed. At this point she was losing so much moisture she could probably sweat bend her own pool in no time. Katara groaned at the thought. Cicadas buzzed in the trees surrounding her.

She finally came up to the pool and set down her clothes on the stone edges and tested the water with her foot. It was quite cool, perfect temperature actually. Katara smiled, closing her eyes as she slipped into the clear ,turqoise water feeling instant relief.

Then she suddenly realized she wasn't alone. It was a fairly large pool and she saw that Zuko was near the end. He looked like he was dozing off and he had his arms on the edges of the pool with his head back and his eyes closed, resting on the damp stone. Katara blinked and blushed slightly because she hadn't really seen him show off so much skin before.

"Hey! What are you doing in here?", Katara asked.

Zuko gasped awake, struggling a bit as he slipped back into the pool with a splash, his shoulders were back to being submerged in the water now.

" Katara ? Oh sorry, I can leave if you want" ,he turned his back to her and started to leave the pool but she stopped him.

" no wait-" ,she hesitated.

Zuko turned back around to face her with a questing look in his golden eyes.

"You don't have to go I ..guess I just didn't expect anyone to be here, that's all." She shut her eyes again as she sunk a little deeper in to the pool.

" oh..okay" ,Zuko muttered.

Katara opened one eye to look at him. "So, how long have you been here anyway?" She asked.

Zuko shrugged, "not long, I just needed to rinse off a bit" ,he admitted.

"Why are you here?" He asked her.

" These last couple of days have been way too hot. I needed to cool off sooner or later", she replied.

Zuko nodded. "I see..yeah, heat doesn't really bother me that much." He said.

Katara gave him a dirty frown.

" but I guess that's pretty obvious.. " he said, scratching his head.

"Uh huh", Katara said to him rather abruptly.

Zuko leaned back and let the salty ,clean water soak into his skin. It was so refreshing and almost purifying. He thought that maybe relaxing more would help him get over his firebending block.

He was also stressed because of the tension between him and Katara.

Ever since he joined their group to be Aang's new fire bending teacher he still felt unwelcome. He knew Katara hated him and Honestly, he would much rather have anyone else hate him then Katara. Or maybe he uncle, he would never want him to hate him.

He cared about Katara. He had a high amount of respect for her and the last thing he wanted was for her to hate him.

He understood of course why she was still mad at him, but he was a changed person now. He only wished she could see that.

Katara sighed, " well, I'm heading out, See you back at camp." She said as she stepped out of the water and grabbed her clothes.

Zuko frowned, " okay", he said. He wasn't sure what the else to say.

Zuko blushed, admiring her in her white under garments, "she had such beautiful skin." He thought.

Katara squeezed out the water from her hair and then walked away, dripping as she went, leaving Zuko there all alone.

Zuko groaned in frustration as he dunked his head under water. A few bubbles rose up to the surface after him.

At this point though, nobody probably hated him more then he hated himself.


	2. Part 2

Katara watched the burning sunset later that day, it looked almost like pink fire scorched the sky and it was lit up with vibrant pink and orange. Some of the colors reflected into her light blue eyes and it made her eyes look purple. Katara smiled slightly as she sat back into the grass with her hands behind her. She saw all of the dirt marks on her skin from the hard work and fun in the day.

Her and Toph practiced their bending in some mud earlier and so the dry dirt on her skin was evidence of that. She giggled to herself remembering when Toph bent some mud into Sokka's face and how ridiculous he looked. They all couldn't stop laughing.

Zuko spent the day with Aang in the forest practicing stances and the rest of the group worked on the camp and gathering supplies. Now that she thought of Zuko he was no where in sight. "Was he with Aang? Or was he at the mineral pool by his self again." Katara wondered.

Either way she needed to wash off. Katara got up from her spot on the grass and made her way to the pool again but this time to clean off the dirt from the day.

By the time Katara got to the pool it was quite dark and the sky had faded into a deep purple color. She felt the warm and rough stone under her feet left from the hot sun. Katara slipped into the water ,it looked quite pretty since the evening sky had painted it with color.

She noticed it was quite warm this time and it was slightly bubbling? The day was pretty hot but she didn't think it would have heated up the mineral pool that much.

Just as she started to relax she heard a voice.

" Katara? Is that you?" ,Zuko replied in a lazy voice.

Katara gasped, "Zuko? ...Well, I guess I kind of expected you to be here again." She said as she sat back into her spot.

Zuko smiled slightly ,it was hard to see in the current light but he saw that Katara was blushing a little. " I like it here", he shrugged, " it's peaceful. "

Katara frowned with confusion. "I don't remember this being a hot spring…" ,she said as she felt the water with her hands, "weird." She uttered.

Zuko blushed suddenly and looked away from her," Huh. Uh me neither", he replied. He sunk a little deeper into the pool. " It was pretty hot today though ", he said.

Katara scooped up some water onto her head with a sigh and sat back into the stone edge of the pool feeling the warm water run down her face. She started to rub off the dirt from her arms.

Since the temperature had dropped quite a bit after the sun had set on such a hot day, she was relieved that the water was warm this time. For what ever reason.

She gazed after Zuko, as he sat back with his eyes closed and she noticed that he had a little smirk on his face. Then a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Wait...are you fire bending the water?!", she asked him with a surprised voice.

"Um..maybe?", he admitted with a guilty heat

"Why?" ,she asked with one eye brow raised over her blue eyes. "Because I need to practice my firebending and this is honestly the best that I can do at the moment…", Zuko grimaced.

"wow", Katara said with an amused voice, "that's sad", she said.

"Yeah ,yeah", he huffed, crossing his arms. "Plus I thought it would be nice since its kind of cool now and I don't really like the cold…" he admitted to her.

"When me and my family visited Ember Island my father would always heat up the pools with his fire bending on cool nights." Zuko said.

Katara warmed up a little and sighed as she felt the comforting heat soak into her.

"right..well it is quite nice I will admit that", she said," I have never been in a hot spring before", she said.

"not a natural one anyway", she joked. Zuko smirked," sorry.." , he apologized.

"Don't sorry about it." Katara said.

"I hope we find a natural hot spring one day, I would love that." Katara said.

"That would be..nice" ,he said. Letting the steam swirl around him.

The warmth soothed her body. It wasn't too hot and that is what she liked about it. It was at a good temperature.

Katara smirked," could you heat it up a little more?",she asked.

Zuko blinked and looked at her," I thought you didn't really like heat", he asked.

"This, I like. It's the sun and the dry heat that bother me. This water feels really nice." She replied.

Zuko smiled. " Okay I guess I can try to make it a little hotter" he said. Waving his arms to make the water heat up some more. Katara sighed, "ahh, that's nice" , she said and then she had a great idea. She wove her arms and spread them to water bend a light mist around the pool.

"Good idea", Zuko said , sinking in the water a little deeper he breathed as he felt the heavy dampness surround him. It felt nice. The moon shone down on them and it made the pool shine silver. The mist around them that Katara created made it look like they were in some sort of a magic pool.

"There. Now it's perfect ", she said, looking accomplished. Scooping up some water she finished cleaning off the rest of the dirt on her skin and then started to rinse her hair off a bit. The steam made it feel silky smooth.

Katara saw a side of Zuko that she had never seen before. A sweet and peaceful side, and she liked it. It still didn't make her forgive him yet but she did respect him a bit more now. Maybe he really did change for the better.

" Hey Zuko" , Katara said playfully.

"Huh?" Zuko looked towards her but all he got was a big slap of water in his face.

Katara laughed out loud as Zuko just sat there with his hair soaking wet over his eyes and a sad, surprised look on his face.

" that's for all those times you tried to capture Aang and how much trouble you caused us!" ,she exclaimed with a huff.

"Glad you can make yourself feel better" ,he replied with a smirk, retaliating with a splash back at her.

"Hey!" Katara cried, bending more water to his face with a playful grin. Zuko spat out water and slpash kicked Katara with a chuckle. "That's it!", Katara replied as she splashed over to him and dunked his head under water playfully. The too spent a couple minutes splashing each other back and forth until it became quite dark.

Katara stretched and then climbed out of the pool swiftly. Zuko gasped for air as he surfaced and smiled after her. Katara squeezed some water out of her hair and grabbed her clothes.

" This doesn't change anything ", she said sternly but with a hint of amusement. Turning her back with a light laugh she headed back to the camp.

Zuko blushed and got out if the pool himself, grabbing his clothes he firebended the water off of his skin and it turned into steam. You could say he was ' steaming hot'.He slowly made his way back to camp fairly far behind the water bender.

She cooled him ,she cooled his fire with her water and balanced him.

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The End. Cheesy ending was cheesy. I hope you enjoyed it otherwise. Feedback is much appreciated ~


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